Loss to White Sox, bean balls upset Tigers

They’re starting to feel like other teams are able to take liberties, and throw at their power hitters — up around the head, no less — and get away with it scot free.

“Well, that’s the second time it’s happened to us. ... It is what it is. It’s over,” Victor Martinez said, after another tower buzzing incident in Thursday’s game against the White Sox caused a back-and-forth that ended with both benches clearing and a pair of ejections, both on their side.

To top it all off, adding insult to imagined injury, the Tigers lost, 6-3, to their American League rivals, losing ground in the division.

The Tigers already lost one pitcher to a bean-ball suspension Thursday.

A sixth-inning pitch got away from Detroit reliever Luke Putkonen, going behind Alexei Ramirez, and Putkonen and his manager both end up ejected. Ramirez did not.

That’s what had manager Jim Leyland steamed enough to charge out on the field — not once, not twice but three times in all — to yell at the umpiring crew, then keep himself closeted in his office after the game, declining comment on the situation.

He wasn’t the only one, as much as they appeared to be steaming.

“I don’t got much to say about that,” said Tigers starter Anibal Sanchez, who gave up a grand slam to the White Sox’s No. 9 hitter, Joshua Phegley, to end his afternoon. “After the home run, I just go to the bench, and ... everybody goes out there. But I don’t have too much comment about it.”

“Just boys being boys, man, you know how it is. It’s just baseball,” said Tigers catcher Brayan Pena, who was the one who had to head off Ramirez, as he sauntered toward the mound, yelling at Putkonen, the move that escalated the whole incident, and caused both dugouts — and both bullpens — to empty onto the field.

“Aaaahh. Aaaahh. Aaaahh. Aaaahh. Aaaahh. Hot tamale,” said Torii Hunter, trying to dodge questions as best he could. “Is the phone ringing? This is tough. You guys have got some tough questions today. That’s something that we try to stay away from and we just try to play the game.

“The game, it polices itself. That’s all I’ve got to say.”

If it were only that simple.There is a back-and-forth code of retaliation built into baseball.

It’s what got Rick Porcello suspended, when he threw at — and hit — Tampa Bay’s Ben Zobrist, just one day after Miguel Cabrera was angry at Rays closer Fernando Rodney for throwing up around his head. Porcello started his five-game suspension Thursday, after appealing it for nine days.

It’s what had Hunter livid when he got plunked in Toronto the next series, just innings after Colby Rasmus’ takeout slide at second base put Omar Infante out of the game, and eventually on to the disabled list.

This isn’t sitting well with the Tigers, at all.

You could see that from the way Leyland reacted to the situation, raging like a bull in a china shop, poking a finger in the chests of the umpiring crew, headed by Jeff Kellogg.

“The skipper was getting himself a little bit when I got there. Seemed like he was pretty adamant that the call to throw out Luke was a terrible call, with there not being any warnings issued,” Coke said, admitting it was as angry as he’d ever seen Leyland. “I have to think here. Yeah. He was pretty heated. I think that’s the best I’ve seen out of him, as far as anger level.”

It was the first time guys like Pena and Hunter had witnessed a Mt. Leyland eruption.

“Skipper was pretty hot. I was like, wow. He looked like he was 35 years old. He really got pretty hot. He was arguing pretty hard and I was like, wow. Think not to mess with the Skipper because he’s no joke,” Pena said. “The Skipper took over, man. It was, what 25 plus 25 guys, 50 guys out there, and the Skipper, he was running the show. He looked like he was 35 years old. That’s pretty good. Now I know I can’t mess with him. Wow, I’m telling you. He was the center of attention. But he was arguing very strongly and he has his reasons to argue. But it was pretty impressive to see him go off like that.”

Hunter knew it was to protect the players, too, keep someone from saying — or doing — something they shouldn’t.

“We were shocked. Both teams were like, ‘Hey, what’s going on? Calm down.’ We saw the skip and we were like, ‘Wow.’ So both teams kind of watched, like, ‘Is this guy going off or what?” Hunter said. “I really appreciate that. When you have a manager who’s out there fighting for you like that. I know what he was doing. He was calming us down so we don’t get ejected. He’d rather take the fall than all our players. If the players go out there and something happened and Cabrera or Miggy or myself get ejected and we’re out for two or three games, that hurts the team. Smart on Skip’s part.”

Yes, there was a method behind the madness.

It was outlandish enough to defuse the situation. But there’s reason to believe there shouldn’t have been a situation, at all.

“I don’t know. I think there was a lot of ‘Woah!’ going on, but I think it was on their end, because after the Toronto thing, it’s like everybody’s able to do anything they want to us, but if something is to go the other way, everybody gets all upset. Instead of the game playing itself out, everybody wants to get in the middle of it, instead of letting it play itself out,” Coke said.

“If he (Ramirez) gets hit right there? OK, so what? It’s over.

“There’s no reason to toss anybody, then issue the warnings. Everything’s good.”

There were no warnings issued before Putkonen was ejected.

In the umpires’ minds, though, there didn’t need to be.

“He (Putkonen) threw behind him and I deemed it intentional,” home plate ump Chad Fairchild told a pool reporter after the game.

Couldn’t the same be said for the pitch from Sale?

“There was no reaction from Fielder. He said nothing. There was no reaction from anyone else,” Fairchild said. “The only reaction I saw was from Sale, who made a motion like, ‘Damn, it got away.’ ”

Both pitchers said that.“I wasn’t trying to hit anybody. Just threw a fastball inside, and it got away from me,” Putkonen said.

Same for Sale.“Just trying to rare back and throw it as hard as I can. I’ve said it before — there’s a time and a place for that, and that wasn’t the time or the place. I’m not even trying to send a message. I wasn’t even trying to back him off the plate, honestly. I’ve got a lot of respect for Prince, the Detroit Tigers and the game of baseball,” the lanky lefty said.

“Even when I threw it on the mound, I was kind of like, ‘Ohhhhh, that’s not good.’ So from the outside looking in, it doesn’t look good at all. Like I said, I swear on everything I love, it was unintentional.”

“I think Sale, out of frustration, overthrows it. Then you see what happens, and it turns into a mess,” said White Sox manager Robin Ventura.

At least one guy isn’t buying that.

“I was watching Sale after he threw the pitch that Miguel hit out. Miguel’s a perennial hitter. I mean, his job is to do exactly what he’s been doing, and that’s hit the ball, and hit it a long ways, most of the time. Then, he (Sale) picks up the rosin bag, and fires it at the back of the mound. Like OK, your frustration’s over. And the first pitch almost hits Prince in the face,” Coke said. “He’s been sitting 90, 92, 93 (mph) most of the game, and all of a sudden, he uncorks 95 at his face?

Not to mention the pinpoint control Sale has had all game.

“Exactly, the next hitter, he’s — bam! Dotting it,” Coke said. “Same thing, to Prince right there, in the same at-bat. Not the next hitter. In the same at-bat, he just starts darting, down and away.”

Ramirez didn’t buy Putkonen’s plea of innocence, either.

“He said he reacted just like any other player would have,” the shortstop said through a translator. “Obviously, that wasn’t a pitch that was intended to go in the zone. That pitch was intended to hurt him, and if you are hurting him, you’re hurting his family, you’re hurting his kids. So that’s something you have to react to.”

Understandably, he was upset when the pitch sailed behind him. Then he took a few steps toward the mound, before Pena headed him off.

“I told him, I say it wasn’t intentional. It’s just baseball. Just relax. But I know he was pretty heated up. I think that was his reaction but my job is just go out there and protect my boys,” the catcher said. “You don’t know when you’re a catcher. You don’t know what the guy is thinking so your job is just go out there and protect your boys and try to calm the situation down, not spark it up.”

It’s just as understandable that the Tigers aren’t happy that people are throwing up in a region where no pitcher should go.

“It’s not fun. At all. To see that pitch coming at your head, is not fun at all. Period. I don’t care whatever, say anything,” Martinez said. “It’s just not fun. Put yourself in the shoes of the hitter, and go out there and see. It’s not fun at all.”

It’s not sitting well with the Tigers, at all.

As much as they can say it’s not bothering them, and it’s just part of baseball, it’s so glaringly obvious that it’s not.

Short hopsTorii Hunter hit his third triple of the season Thursday, and his second in the last week. It’s the most he’s had in any season since 2003. ... Cabrera became the first MLB player to reach the 30 home-run, 90-RBI plateaus before the All-Star break. Cincinnati’s Tony Perez (1970) and George Foster (1977) both had 29 homers and 90 RBI at the break.